1919
1918 1919 1920 The first year of international peace (except in Central Europe) is one of intensified class and race conflicts. Events * World War I is concluded by the Treaty of Versailles which imposes harsh terms on the loser, Germany. * Native Americans who have served in the U.S. military are offered the right to apply for citizenship. All other native Americans are denied the right. * U.S. Congress passes the Volstead Act. Prohobition outlaws production of beverages with greater than .05 percent alcohol. Protestant moralism makes Irish and Italian organized crime syndicates wealthy. * Five day summer race riot in Chicago caused by the killing of Eugene Williams: 38 dead (23 Black and 15 White) and 537 injured (342 Black and 195 White). * Texas, North Dakota and Puerto Rico adopt minimum wage laws. * Returning First World War veterans help defeat prohibition in New Zealand. * Across the U.S. 83 African-American veterans of the First World War are lynched. * U.S. Marines continue the nineteen year long occupation of Haiti, from 1915-1934. * Women's International League for Peace and Freedom is organized. * U.S. military intervention in Dalmatia at the request of Italian authorities to end fighting between Italians and Serbs. Timeline January * January 6: Theodore Roosevelt dies in Oyster Bay, New York. * January 14: 20,00 shipyard and engineering workers march on Belfast City Hall demanding a 44 hour work week, then vote 20,225 to 558 to strike. * January 21: Sinn Fein MPs refuse to go to Westminster and instead convene the first Dail Eireann in Dublin. All Irish MPs were invited but no Loyalist MPs showed up. * January 25: Belfast shipyard strike begins. * January 26: Former German Navy ensign Oltwig von Hirschfeld wounds German Finance Minister Mattias Erzberger with a pistol shot in an assassination attempt. Erzberger was widely despised by nationalist and reactionary Germans for his role in supporting and signing the November 11, 1918 Armistice. February * February 6: General strike in Seattle, Washington begins. It's the first general strike in American history. General strikes also occur in Butte, Montana, Toledo, Ohio and, Winnipeg, Manitoba. * February: American Communist Party is organized in New York City by Louis Fraina, Charles Ruthenberg, Benjamin Gitlow and Bertram Wolfe. March * March: Kinmel Camp Riot * March 7: Paris edition of Stars and Stripes page one headline reads: "Sixty Dollar Bonus for A.E.F. on Discharge." * March 29: British colonial government of Punjab, India bans Dr. Satyapal from public speaking. * March 4: British colonial government of Punjab, India bans Dr. Kitchlew, Dina Nath, Swami Annubhava and Pandit Kotu Mal from public speaking. April * April: American Communist Party begins publishing New York Communist, edited by John Reed. * April 7: Surviving Romanovs and Yusupovs are evacuated from Yalta by the H.M.S. Marlborough. * April 8: Federal Educational Survey of Hawaii. * April 13: Amritsar Massacre. British troops commanded by Gen. Reginald Dyer block only exit and open fire without warning on a peaceful protest of 10,000 in Jallianwallah Bagh. The 1650 rounds of ammunition fired into the terror-stricken crowd killing 400 and wounding 1200. Wounded are left without medical attention by Dyer. * April 15, 1919, Gen. Reginald Dyer issues martial law decree for the entire Punjab and explains the April 13 massacre as, "The least amount of firing which would produce the necessary moral and widespread effect it was my duty to produce . . . from a military point of view, not only on those who were present, but more specially throughout the Punjab." * April 16: British colonial government of Punjab, India applies the Seditious Meetings Act to Jullundur. * April 20: Gen. Reginald Dyer issues the "crawling order" under which the Indian inhabitants of Amritsar must crawl rather than walk on the street where Marcella Sherwood was beaten by an angry mob between 6:00 am and 8:00 pm. May * May 3: American Folk Music Legend Pete Seeger is born. June * June 19: Anarchist Carlo Valdinoci dies when a bomb he is holding blows up while he is planting it. * June 24: Luigi Galleani, publisher of the anarchist''Cronaca Sovversiva'' (Subversive Chronicle), and eight of his supporters are deported from the United States. August * Alandders meeting at Finstrom pass resolution expressing their desire to be part of Sweden. September * September 1: Krasnaya Gazeta announces the launch of Red Terror * September 8-12: U.S. military intervention in Honduras. December * Supreme Council of the Allied Powers proposes the Curzon Line between Poland and the Western Ukrainian People's Republic. * Plebiscite in the Aland Islands overwhelmingly approves being part of Sweden. Category: Category